Federal Communications Commission	"FCC  XX-XXX"


STATEMENT OF
COMMISSIONER GEOFFREY STARKS

Re: 	Call Authentication Trust Anchor, WC Docket No. 17-97.

After a brief slowdown early last year that many attribute to the impact of the COVID pandemic on mass calling operations, multiple reports indicate that robocalls are sharply on the rise again—one source measured a record number 6.3 billion “spam calls” in March 2021, surpassing the previous month’s total of 5.6 billion and the prior monthly high from October 2020 of 6.1 billion. See Cision, Robocall Record: 7.4 billion Spam Texts Surpass Total Robocalls by More than 1 Billion Messages in March 2021 (Apr. 1, 2021), https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/robocall-record-7-4-billion-spam-texts-surpass-total-robocalls-by-more-than-1-billion-messages-in-march-2021--301260890.html.  
  Clearly, we cannot afford to let up on our efforts to identify the culprits of these annoying and frequently fraudulent calls.  I therefore support seeking comment to determine whether we should require certain small voice service providers known to be generating a disproportionately large number of illegal robocalls to implement the STIR/SHAKEN caller authentication framework a year ahead of schedule, by June 30, 2022.  Consumers deserve protection from unwanted and illegal robocalls, and I will continue to support any efforts intended to identify and stop those responsible for placing them.



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